The Knight And The Claymore
by Starhammer
Summary: The Ashen One Was About To Link The First Flame Before Someone Offered To Send Him To A World That Was Filled With Monsters, With Only One Goal For Him To Follow: Protect A Girl Named Clare
1. Prologue

**_PROLOGUE: A NEW WORLD._**

The Figure was staring at a flame after just defeating his strongest opponent yet, The Soul of Cinder. He had driven his twin blades right through the old watcher's sternum, killing him but also imbuing the blades with immense power that could be transferred to the host "Hmph… I come this far and gain immense power, but I don't get a chance to use it… heh, doesn't even make their sacrifices worth it." He stated with regret, remembering his friends who had sacrificed themselves so that he could make it here "well… the flame isn't going to kindle itself…" the figure then walked over to the bonfire which contained the first flame. When he raised his hand to kindle the flame, immense pain shot through his body, he let out a stifled yell, trying to keep the pain low before it ultimately subsided, "what in the abyss was that?" a voice then rang through his head saying "are you the one who defeated the Soul of Cinder?" the voice was feminine in nature, but had an undertone of superiority, the figure "yes, what of it?" there was a brief pause before the voice spoke up again "would you like a second chance at your life, or should I say, undeath?" the figure looked around confused before asking "what do you mean by that?" the voice immediately replied "what I mean is, would you like to start life anew in a different world?" the figure was taken aback by this, and started to weigh his options, but ultimately he said "I will admit that I would prefer a different world, but…" "But?" the voice inquired "I would be throwing my friends sacrifices to the side when they wanted me to save this world. I don't want their sacrifices to be for nothing!" the voice took this into consideration, before saying "then link the fire, and let me take care of the rest." The figure didn't understand and was about to ask what before the voice explained "It's simple really, you link the fire and I'll trade places with you. I have a soul that's about as strong as yours anyway so I should be strong enough to serve as kindling, now will you take me up on the offer?" after hearing this he felt as if he should go through with it, but then realized something important "what's the catch?" this stunned the voice but before they could say anything he followed up with "there's almost always a price, so what is it?" they replied "I simply want you to watch over someone close to me, a girl called Clare. She's young and I doubt she'll make it far without your help, so please watch over her." The figure simply said "so, you want me to look after a girl who was close to you, and it doesn't involve harming innocents… I can get behind that. I'll take your offer! But you need to tell me your name." satisfied the voice then said "very well, my name is Teresa." The figure replies "Ash" "I'll send you to a forest not too far from a village, Clare will be heading there eventually. Please look after her." The figure, now known as Ash, simply walked over to the bonfire before raising his hand over it and asking "will I be able to keep my equipment?" she replied "it shouldn't be too much of a problem." The figure then stated the words required to link the flame "Bonfire Lit." flames then coursed over his body before turning to ash but also having the same feeling as when he touched the painting "I'm going to die aren't I?" he simply heard a chuckle before completely disintegrating "good luck Ash, may you succeed in protecting Clare."

 ** _END OF PROLOGUE: A NEW WORLD_**


	2. Chapter 1

**_CHAPTER 1: DEMON'S_**

Ash opened his eyes up to an unfamiliar sight, what he saw was lush green trees. A sight that was rare to find anywhere in Lothric. He blinked a few times as to adjust his eyes, he looked to his left and saw a strange creature with a soul akin to a Darkwraith. Immediately he looked to his right and saw his bottomless box and immediately ran over to it, garnering the attention of the creature " _I thought there were no humans out here, no matter that just means more food for me!_ " as it finished its sentence, Ash pulled out one of his two blades from the bottomless box, The Chaos Blade. The creature then charged at him and proceeded to slash at him, only for Ash to side step out of the way and slice off its arm, earning a blood curdling scream from the creature. It then turned to face him and said " _YOU FILTHY HUMAN! I'M GOING TO-_ " only for it to be interrupted as it fell in two, as Ash had actually struck twice, once through the arm the other through its centre. "this creature was weaker than expected, slower too." Ash then looked over at where the beast was before it noticed him and saw a woman, with her innards on full display. Ash walks over to her corpse before placing a knee on the ground and picking up a stick nearby and turning it to ash before muttering the words "may the flames guide thee." Before spreading the ash over her body. Once he completed this, he stood up, picked up his box, and started walking.

After about half an hour of walking, he ended up on a dirt road and started to follow it and after a little while he was surrounded by what he could only assume were bandits as each was armed and armoured with sinister smiles plastered on their faces. The one who appeared to be their leader stepped forward and said, "if you wanna live than I suggest you hand over anything of value that you own." Ash simply looked at him, observing the fact that he was essentially all muscle, and from what he could gather was their strongest. Ash simply started walking drawing both the Chaos Blade and the Frayed Blade, staring at the bandit leader. Taking it as a challenge, the leader immediately told all his men to attack. But as soon as they closed in, all of them fell to their knees clutching their stomachs "you should realise the strength of your enemy before fighting them, you're lucky that I don't want to kill anyone right now. But I have no money, so I think I'll take yours." With that Ash continued and after a while came across a town.

When he had arrived in the town, everyone looked at him with suspicion and fear. He simply just headed over to what looked like an inn before asking the owner if he could rent a room. he woke up at dawn when he heard someone shouting. When he left the room and arrived at where the shouting was coming from and found indents in the stonework with blood surrounding it. the body being in an alley not far, immediately Ash started to examine the surrounding area and found it to be in similar condition to the woman that he found yesterday and concluded that it was the same type of creature. Some shouting was later heard for everyone to go to the village chief.

Upon arriving at the chief's house, he heard one of the villagers saying "it's obvious isn't it? There's a yoma hiding in our village!" "so, what's the plan then? once a yoma's disguised itself as a human, there's no way to tell them apart." another one said, "maybe we should start rounding up people who look suspicious to us." Another followed up with, while Ash just stood up the back before the villager from before asked "do you have anyone in mind?" the villager then says, "well there's that man who arrived here just yesterday." Immediately Ash looks up, making a slight rustle in the corner causing the villager to look back and see Ash staring at them "I-I didn't mean it like that okay?" another then piped up saying "the kid's got a point! The night after he arrived Kenneth was killed!" Ash just puts his hand over his broken helmet, similar to a facepalm "enough with the accusations! We need to stick together here." The villager that had suggested that it was Ash was suddenly cowering in fear, while the chief, trying to calm them down said "quiet, I received a reply this morning. They're willing to send someone to our village." One of the villagers then ask, "well who's coming then?" the chief looks up saying "a claymore." Immediately everyone in the chief's house start whispering to each other in fear "a claymore, is this a joke? WE DON'T NEED THOSE BASTARDS HELP!" the village chief simply says "we have no other choice. if I sit on my hands any longer, the entire village could be wiped out." Another villager then states, "but they're yoma themselves!" the chief looks over at him before saying "I know. But remember, they're the only ones who can spot a yoma in human form. They're our only hope." at this point Ash leaves the room, so that he can acquire a picture that he found in his box.

After picking up the picture and the box, he heads outside and notices that everyone is heading towards the entrance of the village. Curious, he follows them and makes his way to the front of the crowd. There he sees a woman walking towards the village, she had blonde hair and silver eyes wearing a white two-piece suit, and a cloth around her neck with some type of symbol on it. As for the armour, all that was visible to him was the steel plate shin-high boots, wrist guards, pauldrons, and something like a skirt around her waist, as well as the unnecessary waist long cape. She then started walking past all of the people and as she walked past Ash he commented on her appearance "so that's a claymore? Must be effective at dodging attacks with armour like that, it hardly protects anything." She then looks over in his direction only to see the other villagers before continuing her way, with Ash following her close behind.

The claymore heads into the chief's house where he produced a sack "uh, here is the payment for your services. please check it's, all there." The claymore replies "no, once the job is complete, the representative will come by to collect it. I can't accept that payment myself." The village chief just looks at her confused saying "ok, whatever you say." Before she continued with "it means if I fail you and die in the process, you are not obligated to pay any money." The chief then looks a bit more lively before saying "oh, I understand. So what do you think? Will you be able to find the yoma today, maybe tomorrow?" she replies with "of course that will depend on the yoma. If it's taking extra care to hide it's yoki. Eventually, either its corpse or my own will turn up in the streets of your village. That's your only certainty" the claymore then walks out the front door 'I see that she's giving them the worst-case scenario so that they don't get their hopes up… smart move.' Upon exiting the building, the chief falls "that-that's my first claymore, I was expecting her to be more human like, but she looked… more like a… monster." 'what an idiot, he doesn't realise how much pain she saved them from.' The front door then opened and closed again, startling the chief.

Ash followed the claymore through the streets of the village and noticed the villagers immediately shutting their doors and windows, as well as taking their children inside when the claymore passed by. Ash soon stepped behind the claymore only for his hidden body and spook spells to ware off, alerting the claymore to his presence as she immediately drew her sword and turned around, almost taking Ash's head off before she sheathed her blade. Ash just looked at her before saying "that was an overreaction." Instead of saying anything, she just turned around and continued along her path. Ash then started to make up the small amount of distance "if you were like any of my friends, you would've replied with a joke of some sort." This garnered no response from her, and as such decided to ask a question "so you're a claymore correct?" the claymore replied "no, claymore is the name we were given, given by you people. Our organisation has no name." Ash just looks at her saying "so you're telling me that your lot were that unimaginative that they couldn't come up with a name for their organisation." She then stopped and said, "you're very strange, do you not fear me?" Ash just looks at her saying "is there a reason to?" the claymore just stared at him before continuing onward, with Ash keeping pace.

"Where exactly are we going?" Ash asked as they neared the edge of the village "is this the border?" Ash just looks through the arch saying, "well there's no town going past here so probably." The claymore draws her sword again and plants it in the ground before leaning on it "so I guess you're resting then?" the claymore replies "I've been walking for seventy hours straight, of course I'm going to sleep." Upon hearing this, Ash takes the two blades off his belt and sits beside her with his blades resting on his shoulder. "why don't you tell me why you've taken an interest in me?" Ash looks at her before saying "would you believe me if I said I was curious?" she stared at him some more before he said, "it's because you look like someone I know." That was a half-truth, but she seemed satisfied with the answer "I heard what you said to the village chief, that was kind of you to say that." She looked at him before asking "what do you mean?" "you told him about the worst-case scenarios concerning your hunt for the creature as to not get his hopes up." she doesn't respond "not many people know what it's like to be feared just for not being a complete human. Sometimes their fear is understandable, other times they are just idiotic." This garnered her attention "I guess that you understand that more than most." "how do you figure that?" Ash responds with "was that rhetorical?" a bell sounds in the distance "by the way, what's to stop it from leaving through the other gate?". She doesn't answer "I'll go check the other side, be back in the morning." With that he headed off towards the gate only to turn around and ask, "what's your name by the way?" "there's no point in telling you, it's a name that will soon be forgotten." Ash just looks at her before saying "what a fool, if you tell someone else your name then it won't be forgotten, because those you tell will remember your name and it will never be forgotten." The claymore looks at him and he says, "well mine's Ash, just so you know." He then started walking over to the other gate.

Ash was walking for what seemed to be an hour, stalking the streets of the village virtually invisible to anyone that looked in his direction. 'I've located Clare, at least I think it is. So, from here it seems pretty obvious to what I should do.' Ash then felt the familiar feeling of souls entering his body "what!" noticing the direction of where the souls came from, Ash took off, and within seconds, arrived at the location they came from. Ash entered the house and looked through one of the doors, seeing a man lying on the floor of what appeared a kitchen, blood everywhere. Ash approached the body to inspect the scene. Feeling a presence behind him, Ash turns only to get smacked into a wall opposite of the entrance. " _I didn't expect another human to arrive so quickly, and for it to actually be the traveller as well. Never mind, that just mean more food for me!_ " suddenly the creature felt a sting in it's arm, and looked down to see a knife, tipped with purple, embedded into its skin. "don't count your chickens till they hatch." Pulling himself out of the wall, Ash placed his hand on the hilt of the frayed blade before getting into a stance. " _so, you couldn't just stay down, how annoying. Why don't you just lay down and DIE!_ " the creature then lunged at Ash, only to immediately lose all of it's limbs. "I would've done that a while ago, if it weren't for the fact that I can't die. Even if I wanted to." The creature, now just a torso and head struggled to say " _just-just WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU!_ " Ash just raised his blade saying, "I'm just another traveller." and removed its head before leaving the house. A few minutes later, the Claymore arrived, and found the creature in pieces.

Upon awaking the next morning, Ash noticed the claymore was nowhere to be found and soon realised that after he killed the creature, the Claymore must have left the village. Cursing himself for not paying attention, he ran after her. Only to end up in the middle of a desert "I'm not used to long distance travels in the sand." As he said this, a sandstorm started up, obscuring his vision and covering her tracks. He continued going in the same direction for the next few days, intent on catching up to her. After about four days of walking, Ash ended up at a village near the desert. Not wanting to take any chances, he asks the first person he sees if there was a claymore passing by. The person responded with a nod, albeit with a hint of fear in their eyes "do you know which direction she went?" they told him that she wandered into the forest at the edge of town. Immediately, Ash went in the direction of the forest. Once he arrived in the forest, he noticed someone in the distance. They were like the Claymore from back at the other village, but with longer hair. Curious he calls out "EXCUSE ME! HAVE YOU SEEN A GIRL THAT LOOKS LIKE YOU, BUT WITH SHORTER HAIR ANYWHERE!?" startled, the figure turns to face Ash. She then starts walking over to him with an air of calm anyone would pick up, but an underlying sense of fear was present at the same time. something only a veteran would find in any fighter.

"are you alone?" Ash just looked at her before saying "I believe that should be obvious. And why are you asking?" surprisingly she just walked over to him and almost immediately he was lifted off the ground by his head, with her behind him _"thank you for making my job a lot easier."_ Ash was about to draw his sword but stopped because of what the creature said next _"Show yourself Claymore! I know you're out there!"_ 'it seems that it'll be easier for me to find her now, that much is certain.' _"you've been tracking me, come on out so we can end this game."_ After the beast finished what it had to say, the Claymore from the last village stepped out of the woods, presenting herself in front of the creature and Ash before walking closer to them. _"Stop! Stay where you are! I know how fast you are Claymore. If you so much as flinch at me, I'll slice the man's throat ear to ear!"_ 'it seems to be getting desperate.' _"Now toss aside your sword and no sudden movements."_ The Claymore reaches for her sword before saying "do you honestly think a hostage will have any effect on me killing you?" before it could answer, a small dagger went into the creature's shoulder causing it to drop Ash to the ground. the Claymore and the creature then stared at Ash's body before he drew another off his belt "I was waiting for a chance to stab you." He then stood up, seemingly calm about the danger the danger in front of him.

 _"WHY YOU LITTLE-! I'LL KILL YOU!"_ the creature proceeded to grab Ash by the neck, Ash on the other hand, took hold of it and threw it and himself into a ditch on the other side. When they reached the bottom, the creature then Impaled Ash with it's one good arm forcing it's claw through his armour, into his flesh and out the other side. Yet he didn't seem too bothered by the pain proceeding to take hold of the creature's arm, and with a sickening crunch, snapped it in two, causing the creature to yell out in pain, _"how- how are you STILL ALIVE!"_ he didn't answer, instead he took hold of the creatures remaining arm, and like the first, snapped it in two before positioning the same dagger that was on his belt over the creature's chest "try being on the receiving end." And with that, plunged the dagger through the creature's chest, destroying the heart along the way, killing the creature.

The Claymore jumped into the ditch after Ash threw himself and the creature into it, what she saw surprised her. Ash was standing over the corpse of the creature, right hand bloodied and his chest plate opened with no visible signs of damage present on his skin. Much to her surprise he didn't seem too bothered that there was a gaping hole in his armour "would you mind telling me how you're still alive?" Ash didn't respond, not immediately "would you believe me if I said I know how to kill them?" She didn't respond with an answer, instead she asked "why did you follow me? And more importantly, why did you intervene?" "one I have nowhere else to go. and two you would've gotten hurt if I didn't. believe it or not, I can usually tell how a fight will end. And you wouldn't have gotten out of it unharmed." She didn't know how to respond "what? Never had someone take the hit for you?" the Claymore started walking, Ash followed close behind "earlier you asked for my name correct?" Ash nodded "it's Clare." Ash smiled beneath his helmet before saying "well you already know mine."

 ** _END OF CHAPTER 1: DEMON'S_**


End file.
